I Wrote 45 Stories on Vocal and Earned Just $0.90 — Here's What I Learned.

I Wrote 45 Stories on Vocal and Made Just $0.90 — Here's What No One Tells You

I’ve written 45 stories on Vocal over the past 11 months.

My total earnings?

$0.90.

No, that’s not a typo. That’s less than a single dollar for nearly a year’s worth of writing, editing, publishing, and sharing.

When I started, I believed the platform could become a side income stream. I imagined writing powerful stories, maybe going viral once or twice, and watching the earnings slowly grow. But thats not the case because reality hits different when you compare it with peoples articles that pushed you to finally join a writing platform and to showcase to the people that you have the ability to write and make them engage with your content and finally hit that publish button

But then reality hits differently.

What I Expected vs What Happened

Expectation / Reality

Regular views/ very few reads

Growing income/ Sagnant at $0.90

Engagement and feedback/ Mostly silence

A breakthrough moment/ Still waiting

I don’t regret the journey — I’ve grown as a writer, developed consistency, and learned things no YouTube tutorial ever taught me.

But I wish someone had told me the truth about Vocal — the stuff that isn't in their promotional videos or Medium comparisons.

Here’s What No One Tells You

1. Publishing a Story Doesn’t Mean People Will See It

Vocal doesn’t automatically give you readers. Most views will only come if you:

Promote on social media

Get featured (which is rare)

Write on high-volume, trending topics

2. SEO Is Everything

If your story isn’t showing up on Google or Vocal search, it’s invisible. Writing deep personal reflections or fiction pieces is great — but unless they match what people are actively searching, the views will be low. But still you need to write day in and day out no matyer what the outcome to keep in mind that its not over untill i win.

3. Vocal Doesn’t Have a Strong Built-in Community

Unlike Medium or Substack, readers don’t hang out on Vocal unless they’re writers themselves. You have to bring your own audience from:

Instagram

LinkedIn

WhatsApp groups

Twitter (X)

4. Fiction Earns the Least

Sadly, even though it’s the most creative and fun to write, fictional stories tend to get the least engagement — unless you already have a fan base or serialize them cleverly.

What I Learned (And What I’ll Do Differently)

1. Write for the Reader, Not Just Myself

Focus on helpful, trending, or solution-based content

Topics like: making money online, crypto, AI, personal finance, productivity depends on your niche.

2. Promote Ruthlessly

Each story should be shared at least 3–5 times over different days

Add short teaser videos or quotes on social media if you have that abiloty to produce content or a simple share on your social media also worth it.

3. Play the Long Game

Every piece is a digital asset

Someday, one of these could go viral or be picked up in search engines. Its all about consistency, determination and to keep going no matter whats the results. You just need to keep improving your content day by day no matter how many reads you received and how many subscribers you gained. You need to be focused on improvement of your writings and someday it will clicked or shared somwhere that it will worth all your efforts, silenced comment sections and the thoughts of quiting because it wasn't working.

Final Thoughts

$0.90 isn’t a lot.

But the experience is worth more — especially if I now turn this learning into action.

This is a story for every creator who started writing with hope and ended up disappointed. Don’t give up. Just adapt.

I’m not quitting.

I’m recalibrating.